As tired feet pound the pavements towards the end of this year’s City to Surf – thoughts of team building may be far from various entrants’ minds.
Indeed, for those more unfit participants press ganged into the run in the name of corporate culture could be excused for increasingly thinking less than charitable thoughts about their leaders during the push towards the finish line.
Okay, for some the run is a battle. This does not diminish the fact that the event, now in its 30th year, has grown as a team building tool for various corporate teams around Perth.
Last year 300 corporate teams took part in the event.
Integrated Group led the way last year with 845 employees taking part in either the run or the Find 30 four kilometre walk. More than half of them did the run.
Indeed, Integrated, which also supplies staff for the in-person registration office that will be operating from the Holiday Inn City Centre on Hay Street from August 16 to 28, also has a rivalry with fancy dress prize sponsor Hollywood Private Hospital – one that dates back several years.
Engineering firm MacMahon boss Nick Bowen has also turned to the City to Surf as a team building exercise.
He also wants to use it as part of his push to create a healthy culture within the organisation.
There have been mutterings from MacMahon of aerobics sessions organised by the company to whip its employees into shape.
These sessions, run twice weekly, are being organised by Mr Bowen’s personal assistant.
Mr Bowen has put out the call to his 1,200 employees to get fitter so they can be happier.
He anticipates about 100 of his employees and their families will be involved this year, with each making an extra donation to assist the cancer-stricken son of one other company’s employees.
In the shorter form of the event, the four-kilometre walk, the list of corporate entrants last year Western Power, Channel 7, Rio Tinto, Friendlies Chemists and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Integrated Group’s Peter Spark said getting together a Find 30 team had been easy with employees encouraging family members and friends to join in.
"We had more than 380 people in our team and it was a great atmosphere with mums, dads and children getting together to get active," he said.
While the event can easily be overtaken by the corporate team hype, its key purpose is to raise funds for the Activ Foundation to provide the money for its programs for intellectually handicapped people.
Over the past 30 years about 185,000 people have tackled either the run or the four kilometre walk section. Last year Activ made a $240,000 profit from the event.
